Duo get on their bikes for Cutty Sark Museum Project.

Cyclists hope their efforts will help with dream of building museum celebrating ship

Two hardy cyclists spent almost 140 miles in the saddle in their efforts to help build a museum dedicated to one of Britain’s most famous ships.

Ronan Littlejohn and Gary Thomson, from Johnshaven, set off for Dumbarton at 5am yesterday to raise funds for the Cutty Sark Museum Project.

Managed by Mearns Heritage Services, it aims to celebrate the links between the famous clipper’s designer Hercules Linton, his Inverbervie birthplace and the Clydeside town, where it was built in 1869.

Project director Dave Ramsay waved them off from the Linton memorial in Inverbervie on their way to Dumbarton’s maritime museum 138 miles away.

The pair, of the Anchor Hotel, were supported by driver Terry Brown.

Having completed this ride, they will be back in the saddle next month, to be joined by Graham Farr and driver Steven Paton for a sponsored ride from Johnshaven to Oban.

The project is due to launch in November following fundraising by the pair and help from Fotheringham Property Developments in Gourdon.

A “virtual museum” will precede a search for property where the museum can be housed.

Mr Ramsay pointed out how the Mearns has other connections to the ship through Robert Burns’ poem Tam O’ Shanter and his father William Burnes, and the life of Ceylon’s “father of tea” James Taylor of Auchenblae.

Inverbervie, Auchenblae and Glenbervie schools have also been helping towards the project.

Aberdeenshire Provost Bill Howatson said: “This imaginative and home-grown initiative to establish a Scottish and Mearns Cutty Sark Museum represents not only strong local interest and commitment but taps in to a rich reservoir of history, tradition and culture.

“The active involvement of three primary schools in the Mearns in the project is a further recognition that heritage and education can combine to highlight the importance of our local history in exploring the Scottish dimension on the Cutty Sark story.”

For more information on fundraising, go to www.justgiving.com/ crowd funding/ cut tys ark job an cycle runs

Top: cyclists Ronan Littlejohn and Gary Thomson are seen off from Inverbervie by Dave Ramsay of the Cutty Sark Museum Project, which wants to build a museum dedicated to the ship, pictured above.